Posts in Content

One of the best ways to start a flame war online: make a claim about the costs of online piracy.

Some, of course, argue that online piracy isn't a problem. Free downloads are free promotion, the argument usually goes. Others, especially those in media industries that have found adjusting to the internet difficult, claim that online piracy is responsible for their woes.

Google made quite a few mistakes when it launched its Gmail-based social network, Buzz. Some mistakes, namely those related to privacy, overshadowed smaller mistakes.

One of those smaller mistakes: not giving publishers an easy way to encourage users to share their content on Buzz. With Facebook, Digg and Twitter 'share' buttons being almost ubiquitous across the web today, the fact that Google didn't release a 'share' button of its own is perhaps additional evidence of just how rushed the Buzz release was.

The Financial Times is lucky. It's in the minority of newspapers that
can legitimately claim to have found 'success' with an internet pay wall.
The company's subscribers pay upwards of $180 a year to access content
on the Financial Times' website, FT.com, which is behind one of the more
solid pay walls around.

But that pay wall isn't impervious; it may be coming down if you're a certain type of mobile internet user in certain geographic regions. That's because,
according to Business Insider, the Financial Times will soon launch an
initiative with Foursquare that will give some Foursquare users who check
into certain businesses in certain locations the ability to access
FT.com without a paid subscription.

USA Today, like the majority of dailies in the United States, has a
problem. Last year, its circulation suffered a significant drop, and
it's now the number two daily after being surpassed by the Wall Street
Journal.

So what's USA Today to do? Obviously, it needs to change. And a small
change is coming in the form of a deal the newspaper has struck with
Demand Media to provide 'Travel Tips by Demand Media' on USAToday.com.

Two recent studies this week underscore a trend obvious not only to smartphone owners (a segment rapidly achieving dominance in the mobile phone market), but also to those early adopters of Kindles, iPads and the like. What matters in mobile is the data, not the vox.

CNN has a big problem: its ratings are dropping. Big time. A New York
Times article this week pointed out that CNN's main hosts have lost
almost 50% of their viewers over the past year.

And while CNN's viewership is plummeting, its competitors are gaining
viewers. Several FOX News hosts have registered year-over-year
viewership gains in the range of 25-50%. And lest you think the drop in
CNN's viewership is primarily the result of demographics or political
preferences, CNN is even being beat out at certain hours by MSNBC and
CNN's lightweight news channel, HLN.

There’s been a lot of change in deciding what ranks on a Google
search result page over the last few months. According to Andrew Girdwood, 'Too many SEOs are in denial about the radical changes that
have overhauled Google in recent months.'

One of the biggest changes Andrew’s talking about is the importance of ‘real time search’, which requires a fundamental shift in
how you go about producing content.

So how can make your content production process more suited to the demands
of real time search?

The iPad is on its way. Apple started accepting pre-orders earlier this month, but there are still many unanswered questions about what iPad will deliver in its final form.

One thing that almost certainly won't be present when the iPad ships: support for Adobe Flash. That has numerous raised questions about both the iPad and Flash. After all, if the device Apple is betting so big on doesn't support Flash, will publishers, who have seen Apple's success with the iPhone, be forced to adopt Flash alternatives in order to position themselves to cash in if the iPad achieves success of its own? Or is Apple simply fighting a fight it can't win?

For many online publishers, user-generated content is often created
through commenting systems that allow users to engage in discussion
around a publisher's content. In many cases, these user-generated
comments are more interesting than the content they are in response to.
That's a boon to publishers.

But comments can be problematic. Trolls and spammers, often anonymous,
can wreak havoc and turn a friendly experience into an experience
plagued by hate and vitriol.

Some of the world's most recognizable brands collectively spend billions of dollars annually associating themselves with celebrities (movie stars, athletes, etc.). The logic is simple: consumers love celebrities, and by associating with the right ones, brands can generate goodwill and buzz.

Most young internet businesses don't have the moola to ink celebrity sponsorships, but that doesn't mean that celebrities haven't become an important part of the web startup ecosystem. Just look at Twitter.

There’s no shortage of information telling online marketers what they should be doing. After all, everyone wants to be at the top of their game and best practice stuff really helps – but I rarely ever see a list of some of the DON’Ts.

So I made one. It should hopefully help you continue to steer clear of the online marketing taboos... If you are doing any of this, then shame on you.